Sea Pigs Attack!

[blowinstink]

Originally Posted by HamptonMorgan22

As a former law enforcement officer. I will tell you how I read it.

2. Unlawfully supplied false information to law enforcement officers. To purposely try to avoid the registration laws.
.

I guess I missed it, what was the "false information" supplied?

[HamptonMorgan22]

they tried to pass the cat off as registered with the larger boat they had? right? or did I read that wrong?

[HamptonMorgan22]

"and the dinghy was marked as the T/T for a larger documented boat."

Obviously a 10cat is not a dinghy for a yacht, and was not properly registered or there would not have been a ticket written.

[Boasun]

Are we going to have townships that will have the Waterway version of speed traps?
To large a wake. Ticked.
To noisy (unmuffled Engines as they claimed). Ticked.
Bikinis too too small. Ticked. A Town in Florida does this one.
Then you have the dreaded MSDs rules that some townships will force on you.
ETC. ETC. ETC.

[sailingdog]

Hampton-

Federal law states that a dinghy can be exempt from state registration if it is under 10 HP and used exclusively for transporting to and from its mother vessel and is marked with the USCG documentation number as required.

Second, from my reading of the OP, the 10' cat boat was clearly marked as a tender to another vessel. I'm not quite sure why you say a 10' cat boat can't be a dinghy for a larger sailboat? Many dinghies are equipped with sailing rigs. The Walker Bay dinghies, the Porta-botes, the Portland Pudgies, and many others can be used as a tender to a large sailboat, and have optional sailing rigs.

Last I checked, there was no law, federal or state, that defined what could and could not be used as a tender to a larger vessel. One larger sailboat I've seen uses a 12' center console RIB as its dinghy. I use a 12' 6" porta-bote as one of the two dinghies to my boat.

[hphoen]

SD,

Certainly a 10 catboat could be a tender, but the federal regs state that, in order to qualify, it must be used only for transporting crew to and from shore. The parties in question were obviously enjoying a little daysail.

[sailingdog]

Not necessarily.... they may have been trying to get from the dock to the mother vessel... and in a sailing dinghy, that might require what would look like a nice little daysail, since sailing dinghies can't go directly up wind.

Originally Posted by hphoen

SD,

Certainly a 10 catboat could be a tender, but the federal regs state that, in order to qualify, it must be used only for transporting crew to and from shore. The parties in question were obviously enjoying a little daysail.

[hellosailor]

sd-
"Federal law states that a dinghy can be exempt from state registration if"
What code is that? USC? CFR?

[TrueBlue]

Never heard of any Federal law that allows exemption from State registration fees. I'm 99.99% certain that in RI, if the boat has a motor, it must be registered, regardless of HP. Being identified solely as a T/T a mother vessel provides no exclusion rights if the tender is a m/v.

[hphoen]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Not necessarily.... they may have been trying to get from the dock to the mother vessel... and in a sailing dinghy, that might require what would look like a nice little daysail, since sailing dinghies can't go directly up wind.

Good point! I'd use that excuse, too, if pulled over!

I thought I remebered reading about this, and I tracked it down. John Pollard has done all the research. Snip from his post in a different thread,

dinghy-registration.html" target="_blank">http://www.sailnet.com/forums/genera...istration.html


==========================================
As a follow-up to my previous post, this is what it says in the FAQ section of the USCG Vessel Documentation Center:

Quote:

IS THE VESSEL TENDER DOCUMENTED?

Documentation of your vessel does not cover the vessel's tender or dinghy. These craft fall within the jurisdiction of the motorboat numbering laws of the state of principal use. Please contact your state agency that handles the registration or numbering of motorboats for further information.

HOWEVER, this is what the Code of Federal Regulations at Title 33: Navigation and Navigable Waters, has to say:

Quote:

§ 173.13 Exemptions.

Where the Coast Guard issues numbers, the following classes of vessels are exempt, under Section 12303 of Title 46, United States Code, from the numbering provisions of Sections 12301 and 12302 of Title 46, United States Code, and this part:

(a) A vessel that is used exclusively for racing.

(b) A vessel equipped with propulsion machinery of less than 10 horsepower that:

(1) Is owned by the owner of a vessel for which a valid certificate of number has been issued;

(2) Displays the number of that numbered vessel followed by the suffix “1” in the manner prescribed in §173.27; and

(3) Is used as a tender for direct transportation between that vessel and the shore and for no other purpose.

So the exemption, if it exists at all (??) would only apply to a motorized dinghy of less than 10hp.